A seriously shattered mum has taken to Mumsnet to complain about her nightmarish neighbours, as she doesn't know what to do.
The exhausted midwife is having to work 12 hour shifts after a terrible night's sleep thanks to the little boy in the semi next door who runs around, very loudly, at 4.30 in the morning.
She explained that she cannot relax and fall back asleep because of the noise, and she said the whole family seems to wake up this early, so his running around is not an issue to them.
The post said: “They moved in December and the noise was horrific. This kid was running up and down the stairs all day, smashing a football against the wall, crashing into the wall and generally making our lives hell. I’m a midwife, so I do long shifts and need my sleep.
“I did talk to his mum and explained the impact the noise was having and she said she would try and get him to stay in bed until 7.This worked for a bit, but now he’s up and running around the house again.
“My body is just so tense that I can’t get back to sleep. I’m literally lying there listening for the next bang and crash - this boy is running around like his house is on fire.”
Get the news you want straight to your inbox. Sign up for a Mirror newsletter here
Some commenters were really sympathetic with the original poster, suggesting helpful things like earplugs or playing white noise.
One commenter wrote: “Can you talk to the neighbours about it? That's not a reasonable time to be making noise and disturbing sleep. In my area, that would be illegal and persistent noise after a warning would result in a fine. They may not realise how loud it is for you and would address it if you let them know. Are they approachable?”
Others did not seem to understand the struggles of the exhausted woman, and told them to simply change their mentality.
They said: “You need to change your mentality as well, you can go back to sleep! My husband is very negative if he gets woken up early, then struggles to go back to sleep. I'm more positive, I’d look at the clock and think great I still have 2 hours of sleep before my alarm or whatever.
“You can train your brain to ignore it. My husband gets up for work at 4.30, I don't hear his alarm or him leaving anymore. I used to and then have to go back to sleep, but now I'm used to the noises and ignoring them in my sleep.
“And you've had sleep up to 4:30, surely it’s only disturbing the last hour or 2 anyway?”
Someone pointed out that it’s really not that easy when you’re stressed out and struggling with insomnia.
They wrote: “It really really doesn't work like that - I mean, it was that easy, nobody would struggle with insomnia.
“I think if you don't struggle with sleep, you'll never understand how frustrating and upsetting it is to get woken up in the night.
“I've always struggled with my sleep and with getting back to sleep. Last night my husband kept me awake snoring and then when he finally shut up, I was so wide awake and frustrated that it took me until about 2am to nod off myself. He was asleep about 0.5 seconds after I shoved him to roll over.”
A sensible piece of advice given at the bottom of the thread was: “If you've spoken to the parents before and it worked then rinse and repeat.”